Scoffing the Signs

Abraham Wiebe

The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting
desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said
unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is
red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and
lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not
discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the
prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.
Matthew 16:1–4

What a wonder!—to live in the time of abundant signs, and
ask for more! What inexplicable folly to walk up to the Sign, and ask for
signs! Jesus had come after hundreds of years of great silence, had matched
perfectly the many prophecies given about the manner the Messiah would come,
had been announced and acknowledged by His forerunner John, and continued, by
His ministry, to fulfill line after line of Scripture.

The Pharisees and Sadducees mentioned here were men whose
whole lives were given to studying the Scripture, but, even with that aside,
the very face value of Christ’s actions was enough to plainly demonstrate His
heavenly origin and mission. Every time a leper was cleansed, a lame man
walked, a blind eye was opened, a dead man was raised—everything Jesus touched
was a clear, unmistakeable sign. Heaven’s own preacher in their midst, at their
eye-level, speaking their language— every time He opened His mouth, they heard
divine words of wisdom and instruction, and they persisted in asking for a sign
from heaven. Wicked and adulterous indeed!

It is a constant blind spot among the human race to condemn
the mistakes of past generations while foolishly committing the same errors. Every
time we read about or consider people like those who refused Noah’s warning,
like the backsliding Israelites and their rejection of God’s holy prophets, or
like, in this account, the generation who ignored the world’s Messiah, we shake
our heads and marvel at their supreme ignorance and uncommon blindness.

Or is it so uncommon? Are we any more sign-conscious than
our predecessors? And, if being more conscious, are we any more responsive?

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers,
walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming?
for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation. 2 Peter
3:3–4

No, friends, we are not free of this sign-scoffing curse. In
reality, there has never been a time of so many scoffers, and such blatant
scoffing, as now. Our society, with all of its great intellect, superior understanding,
higher learning, brilliant solutions, and whatever other miserable humanist advancements
we boast, is fatally blind to the most basic signs of the time. What an eternal
shame that we in the last era—an era of greater importance, in a real sense,
than the time of Jesus Christ—we with the accumulated experience of the ages to
warn and guide us, we with the most to gain or lose, should fall stupidly into
the same wicked and adulterous category!

We read scriptures like 2 Timothy 3 where the apostle Paul
prophesies the exact condition of mankind in the last “perilous times,” and we
can go down the list and tick each box without the shadow of doubt. Or turn to
Matthew 24 where it likens the last time with the days of Noah, and then
compare our society with the description of that generation in Genesis 6:5,
“The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Surely we could highlight that
verse as describing 2019, and back it up with thousands of footnotes! Some of us
even understand the Revelation and the seventh trumpet angel’s burden that
“there should be time no longer.”

And in one sense, we can realize the time even without deep
biblical understanding. Just as the signs in Jesus’ time were evident to any
honest heart, so we can look around us at the world today and sense, without
question, the imminent Second Return of Christ. It seems that every news
headline is a warning; all the pain in our world, the filth, the deception, the
selfishness, the injustice, the new legislation accommodating new sin, the governments
actively fighting against God—everything points to a single possible outcome.
We dare not be guilty of such wickedness as to demand a sign when they appear
around us every day.

So then, what, friends, are we doing with the signs of our
time? What is our reaction? Satan has reacted to the understanding that his
time is short, and his greatest burden is to make sure we don’t react. He
attacks each of us with the same doubts, the same selfishness, the same near-sightedness
that were the destruction of the generations before us. The temptation, too
often successful, is for us to relax comfortably into the “eating, drinking, marrying”
lifestyle that seems so lawful, but that drowned multitudes in the Flood.

Many of us never claim to doubt, but may deceive ourselves
into postponement, like that evil servant who said in his heart, “My lord
delayeth his coming.” This is one of the most dangerous conditions to be in, comforting
one’s self that he believes the end is near, but manifesting no proof in his
actions.

Do not take the Lord’s tarrying as a license for careless
living. This same passage tells us plainly that it is His longsuffering alone
that stands between us and the Last Day (2 Peter 3:9). The vision of the writer
here seems to be of God ready, longing to return, but forbearing only because He
is not willing that any should perish. His longsuffering is great. In the days
of Noah He gave men 120 years, but be assured, He is not slack concerning His promise.
That day will come, the infallible Holy Scripture assures us, and we are also told,
again like in the time of the preaching of Noah, that the majority will make the
same utterly foolish and eternally momentous decision—to reject all warnings and
offers of deliverance.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what
manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking
for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for
such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot,
and blameless. 2 Peter 3:11–14

The question is, in light of all this, “what manner of
persons ought ye to be?” If we really are looking for and hasting unto the
coming of that Day, our lives will reflect the belief. Sinner, if you hope to
avoid the inevitable punishment of the scoffers, your sole pursuit must be to
repent and be saved. You must pursue salvation with the urgency that only an
understanding of the shortness of time will bring.

To the saint, shame on us if we preach this message and do
not live it ourselves. In fact, the only hope of the world’s heeding the
message relies on our first getting under the burden and living it before them.
How can we live slow, plush, self-seeking lives, and expect sinners to fear the
Judgment? Our holy conversation and godliness must bring a jolting stop to
their wicked scoffing. Our diligent, blameless lives must be in themselves an
undeniable sign to the hardened world.

Do you see the signs, or are you wicked and adulterous? Are
you a scoffer, or will you be found of Him in peace?